echoes mixing with those of the ghosts, challenging the spirits, making a new reality in this place of darkness and fear.
"Bend here." "Watch this step." "Be careful through here." Had it not been for his imagination, he might have forgotten where he was. Only the cadence of Broken Branch's continued mumbling became a subconscious reality. "Wolf Dream.'' Over and over it echoed in his head—one with darkness.
They slept finally.
Awake. Darkness. Hear the clattering and echoing resonance as the ghosts do something in the ice. The feeble flicker of Wolf Dreamer's lamp is life. Sleep again, One Who Cries. Wolf Dreamer keeps the ghosts at bay.
How long was it? One Who Cries couldn't really say. The light grew slowly until they stared about owlishly, uneasy at first.
"Light!'' Singing Wolf exploded. ''It's light!''
"No," One Who Cries called, turning, looking up. "It's stars. The Blessed Star People!" He pointed high overhead.
"Dawn," Wolf Dreamer called back. "Look, you can make out the edges of the crack above us." Then, in a quavering voice, he whispered, ' 'We 're through.''
Relief washed so powerfully through One Who Cries, it left him trembling. Blinking tears, he sagged to his knees, drawing Green Water close, hugging her tight. "We're through."
"Of course, husband. I told you the Wolf Dream was true," she chided gently.
Around them, whoops of exultation split the air, dancing, cavorting people gyrating happily.
Morning grew in the slit of sky, the clouds graying.
Wolf Dreamer carefully snuffed the tiny flame that had meant so much to them.
"Uh!" Laughing Sunshine grunted, wincing.
Singing Wolf moved quickly, steadying her. "What?"
She swallowed hard. "My time, the child is coming!"
Broken Branch cackled and yipped. "Wolf Dream! Her baby comes! Born to a new world like all the People! Ha-heeee! Wolf Dream! New life! Born anew!"
One Who Cries smiled, feeling Green Water's arm go around him. He studied the beaming faces of his people, seeing Dancing Fox in the light of the new day. His smile froze on his face as she met his eyes, a haunted emptiness there.
Chapter 47
"I can't believe this!" Singing Wolf shook his head, staring across the snow flats at the herds of animals. A small group of long-horned buffalo stood no more than a dart's throw away, watching curiously, ears flapping, tails switching, a curious gleam in their black eyes.
To the south, the divide they camped on stretched away. into a white maze of ridges and dendritic drainage channels. Around them, black spruce stood, their ratty branches shifting with the wind that scoured the ridge top.
Behind, the Big River made a bend to the west, a narrow defile leading into the rugged ice-capped mountains beyond. Like a series of teeth, the range rose ominously, gouging at the gray scudding clouds. To the east, several days' walk, the Big Ice stretched, the horizon foggy and obscure. Where they sat on the wind-blasted ridge, the freezing currents carried the interminable cold up from the ice, blowing ever northward.
Beyond them, the caribou that had stopped to study them earlier grazed slowly as they moved away, nubbins of antlers beginning to form.
"And there's fresh mammoth sign." One Who Cries smiled happily.
"Wolf Dream. No Others here." Singing Wolf sighed. "I'm going to hate to go back."
One Who Cries stiffened. "Go back? Wait a minute. I thought you said 'go back'?"
He eyed his cousin seriously. "Wolf Dreamer is going for
another group. I think Buffalo Back will bring his people through this time."
"Go back? Like, from where we just came from?"
"Yes. Though I'm leaving Laughing Sunshine and my child here. The Others will be pushing closer to the People on the other side of the Big Ice, corralling them like deer for the slaughter."
"And you want to go back? You're crazy. Touched by the Monster Children's light. Why should we—"
"Someone has to tell of it besides Wolf Dreamer. Too many would refuse to believe him after—"
"That's true."
The voice behind caught them both by surprise. "I need both of you."
One Who Cries whirled. Wolf Dreamer stood there, a faraway look in his eyes. The white bearskin covered him from head to toe, a stark reminder of his Power. Now the hair seemed to gleam with a life of its own, trapping the light of the distant sun, ruffling in the chill wind.
"Both?"
"Raven Hunter," Wolf Dreamer whispered absently. His eyes had lost their focus, lips slack. "I . . .1 can sense that there'll be danger. The Renewal ... I'll have to Dream. I don't know what Raven Hunter might do. But I ... I feel trouble. Blood."